I’ve been thinking on some changes for counterspell, for dnd and any other rpg that has counterspell.
My thought is moving counterspell from a spell into a game mechanic.
If a creature casts a spell that you also have the ability to cast that day, you can expend an appropriate spell slot to unravel their spell and counter it.
So just about anyone can counterspell but does limit it to creature that have spell slots. It makes casters think more about encounters that might come up that day and also push them to choose more obscure spells that are less likely to be countered.
Any thoughts? Arguments for or against? Other ideas you’ve tried?
I am not sure it would be any good. Basically it would mean the meta spells would be counterable like before, so the characters have an option to take less useful or more niche spells to avoid a counterspell.
But in practice counterspell is already constrained by memory slots, spellslots and actions (it takes a bonus action, which there is only one per turn), and also range and vision. It also takes identifying the spell to not waste your counterspell on something useless.
So I’m not sure what the intent could be with this. A wizard would basically be required to take fireball if only to counter it, and avoid using it against another wizard. It feels to me that it would decrease the possibilities, not increase them.